Ireland - Downpour In Dublin
We woke to the sound of heavy rain bouncing off the tent, with a few bleary-eyed glances exchanged we figured staying in our sleeping bags was by far the best approach. Some time later the rain hadn’t subsided, so after a quick wash, we began the weary task of packing up unfamiliar camping gear in the pouring rain. Within 5 mins we were both soaked.
Although we were wearing our biking kit and so were dry from the rain, we were damp inside from perspiration, as the day was getting muggier. It took us about an hour to pack up and throw the kit onto the bikes. Once on the bikes, all felt right with the World as we rode through some glorious Irish countryside, even the rain had now stopped beating. After one wrong turn, which took us down to a beautiful quayside area and a quick dash back up the same road, we found the N11, which winds its way up to Dublin along the coast. Smooth as silk dual carriageway intermingled with a few detours off into towns, which hug the coast. Arklow, Wicklow, Newcastle, Greystone were all passed on our way up. Finally, we caught sight of our first Dublin City Centre sign and followed it in.
Our view across the campsite outside of Dublin
Just by chance, we parked up in the centre of Dublin right outside Trailfinders and a ‘traditional’ Irish coffee bar and after a much-needed cup of coffee and bowl of real Irish tomato and potato soup we headed for the Tourist Information shop. We had one main purpose, apart from seeing some of Dublin city, which was to purchase an adaptor unit that would convert a serial lead to a USB for the mini laptop and would allow the laptop to connect to the GPS and mobile phone. No one had one and after traipsing about Dublin to most computer shops and getting soaked both inside and out (it was still very muggy but with torrential rain) we gave up and decided to leave Dublin before rush hour started. What a detour!! It took us about an hour to get out of Dublin! We were told the best way was to follow the signs to the airport but these seemed to disappear – what we found out when we had to turn around was that it was signposted quite clearly going into Dublin from the North but not going out to the North! Ah well, eventually we were out and decided to head for a place called Rush.
One of the guys from a computer shop told us there was a campsite right on the beach. We had assumed we had missed it, as we seemed to be travelling for ages -but no – and suddenly there we were right on the beach with ‘hurricane-like’ winds trying to put up our tent. Actually considering that we hadn’t had much practice we managed to get it up (so to speak!) in 15mins and with all the stuff inside as well. The views were great and after a good carb meal, we had a restful night listening to the rhythmic crashing of the waves onto the beach.
